family background [in Canberra] and his father's career had three crucial influences on his thinking: on the role and nature of the Federal Government, the role and nature of the public service, and the problems of urban life in a new suburb." Paul Hasluck, a public servant before becoming a Liberal politician in 1949 (and no admirer of Gough Whitlam), wrote of Fred Whitlam: "I came to know him as a public-spirited, meticulous and dutiful man with an inquiring but cautious mind, who was always very concerned to make sure that whatever was done was right, both in the sense of legally unexeptionable and soundly based on principle. He was a good churchman. He was certainly not intolerant or censorious, but his meticulous concern about what was right, though it would lead him often to differ from the accepted views, sometimes made it seem that he was rigidly orthodox. He was held in very high regard and respect. He was kindly and modest." References 1884 births 1961 deaths Australian public servants Gough Whitlam Lawyers from Melbourne Public servants from Melbourne 20th-century Australian public servants People educated at Wesley College (Victoria) Melbourne Law School alumni Parents of prime ministers of Australia People from Prahran, Victoria